Patterned, tufted articles, such as carpets, have become increasingly popular in recent years, especially with the advent of computerized and servomotor controls for various aspects of tufting machines, which have significantly expanded the number of pattern effects and styles that now can be produced. The formation of programmed designs or patterns within tufted carpets or rugs generally has been accomplished through (i) control of yarns being fed to various needles of a tufting machine, typically through the use of pattern attachments such as roll or scroll attachments; (ii) by the lateral shifting of one or two needle bars of the tufting machine to locate stitches or tufts at various laterally shifted positions as the backing material is moved underneath the needles; and/or (iii) by shifting the primary backing material laterally, typically in machines using a floating head and a reduced number of needles (i.e., one).
It has also been known to use a combination of one or more of yarn feed control, shifting of a needle(s) and or shifting of the primary backing to form desired pattern effects in the backing. For example, by using yarn feed controls to feed more or less yarn (i.e., back rob the yarns), different color yarns can be placed at laterally displaced locations, with lowered tufts or ends of yarns created by the shifting of needle(s) and back-robbing of the yarns fed to the shifting needles being buried or hidden by other tufts.
While such patterning systems or devices have enabled an increasing array of different styles and/or pattern effects to be formed in carpets, there is still a limit in the type of patterns or “looks” that can be achieved with such patterning devices. In addition, pattern attachments such as roll or scroll attachments further can significantly add to the complexity and cost of a tufting machine, while the burying of yarns requires higher pile heights to cover such buried yarns, thus adding further costs to the finished carpet. Further, tufting machines that utilize the lateral shifting of the primary backing generally have limited production rates or capacities, and typically are used mainly as specialty machines, such as for producing patterned carpets and rugs. In addition, to provide rugs or carpets with a “woven look” as opposed to a “tufted appearance,” it typically has been necessary to use specialty machinery, such as weaving looms or other dedicated machinery, which can be more costly and labor intensive operate to produce such woven carpets.
Accordingly, it can be seen that a need exists for a system and method for forming patterned, tufted articles that address the forgoing and other related and unrelated problems in the art.